Bird Camp Diaries: April 2008

The Bird Camp Diaries are nothing more than whimsical monthly musings. I hope you find them entertaining, and sometimes thought provoking.

Third Rock From the Sun

On The Wing: Bird Camp Diaries I've personally marked "Earth Day" only one time - somewhere in the early 90s - when my elementary class planted some trees. Or maybe that was Arbor Day? (Whose idea was it to put the two in the same month, anyway?) Either way, though told I was building a safer and healthier environment, it felt more like forced and unpaid manual labor.

I'm naturally skeptical of days in which I'm supposed to observe or celebrate, and yet am not given time off from work. Work, errands, cook, clean - oh, yeah and make sure to celebrate Earth Day while you're at it. Sure, I'll squeeze that in between brushing and flossing. Unfortunately, I suffer from the Earthly reality that there are only 24 hours in a day.

Despite our bitter past and the fact that I will be in the office the entire day, I've decided to give Earth Day another chance. I mean, I probably owe it considering Earth has given me everything I have. I found out some amazing, interesting and depressing facts in my effort to get better acquainted with the third rock from the sun, including:

Better Late Than Never - Planet Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old. Yet the first Earth Day wasn't until 1970. How long does it take to plan a party?
Safety in Numbers - Over 1 billion people will take part in some Earth Day activity. Unlike me, most of them probably had the day off.
Supersize Me - The Earth's shape is very close to something called an oblate spheroid - a rounded shape with a bulge around the equator. In a sense, like most Americans.
Don't Sail Off The Edge - Okay, not everyone believes in the "round theory": www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm. Why do I have a feeling these will be the same people that will start the conservation group "Sasquatch Forever"?
And You Thought Three was a Crowd - Earth has approximately 6.7 billion human inhabitants. If that sounds like a lot, it is. Consider, in 1750, there were "only" 978 million human inhabitants and if population growth continues on its current trajectory, we will reach 9 billion people by 2050. Who needs elbow room, anyway?
Why is the Sky Blue? - Earth's sunlit sky appears blue because air scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths. I have no idea what this means, and it's a bit off from my guesses that A) The sky is a mirror that reflects the ocean and B) God made it that way.
A Few Sizes Too Big - My ecological footprint is 18 acres (taking into account food, mobility, shelter and goods/services). By comparison, the average ecological footprint in the United States is 24 acres. That's the good news. The bad news is worldwide there exist 4.5 biologically productive acres per person. If everyone lived like me, we would need 4.1 planet Earths. See how much larger than life you are at www.earthday.net/footprint.

Has Earth Day outlived its usefulness? Debatable. Has the event become more of an illusion too tied to corporate marketing? Probably. Will it help save the planet? Not by itself. But with a cynical public pre-occupied with jobs, technology and the daily grind, it still serves a purpose. So if you're looking to do something this Earth Day that's simple, easy and guaranteed to benefit the environment and help reduce your ecological footprint, consider joining Pheasants Forever, the leading national conservation organization. Become a member at the PF MarketPlace today.

Story by Anthony Hauck
PF/QF Public Relations Specialist

If you have story ideas, dog photos, pre-1980 hunting photos and requests for future On The Wing consideration, please send correspondence to ahauck@pheasantsforever.org.

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